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Matthias Rath

This controversial German doctor lived and worked in South Africa in the 2000’s and was endorsed by the then Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. However, apart from the Minister and those associated with Mbeki’s denialist government, there seems to have been a unified outcry against Rath’s medical claims and the work he conducted in the country.

Rath’s approach to treatment of the HIV pandemic has been to deny outright the effectiveness and safety of using antiretroviral medication, and instead promoting the use of vitamins. This approach has been publicly decried by the TAC, Medecines Sans Frontieres, and numerous other AIDS activist organisations throughout the country. In 2008 the Cape High Court banned Rath’s organisation from continuing drug trials and advertising their products in the country.

Wits Journalism Anova Health

The project is jointly managed by the Anova Health Institute and the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand. The project is funded by by the Health Communication Partnership based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Centre for Communication Programmes and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief through the United States Agency for International Development under terms of Award No. JH/HESA-02-05 and through the Anova Health Institute through PEPFAR via USAID under Award No. AID-674-A-12-00015.

USAID